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Big Read Guests Are Authorities on Survival and Perseverance

Imagine, if you will, preparing your body for freezing weather, hitching up eight sled dogs and making a 2,500-mile, solo trip from Barrow, Alaska, to eastern Canada.

It takes mettle and perseverance – the kind you’ll see in author Pam Flowers when she talks about that trek and her book “Alone Across the Arctic” at 7 p.m. April 2 at the Library Center.

Mettle and perseverance also describe the other special guests headlining the Big Read in April. The library’s annual one book, one community celebration encourages all ages to read the same book, talk about it and attend the programs at library branches and community venues.

This year’s featured title, Jack London’s classic “The Call of the Wild,” sets the tone for our lineup of some 50 programs. They include practical survival skills for ‘tweens and teens, wilderness skills for adults from Bo Brown, hiking tales from the Appalachian Trail with Marcus Ross, and a Useful Plant Hike at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center.

The April 24 author, former Navy SEAL Cade Courtley, knows perseverance and survival. His nine years of active duty led Courtley on highly classified, high-risk operations around the world. TV watchers may know him as host and producer of the series “Surviving Disaster.” Courtley’s book is “SEAL Survival Guide: A Navy SEAL’s Secrets to Surviving Any Disaster.”

We’re also planning some gentler programs – “A Dog’s Purpose” author Bruce Cameron on April 10 at the Library Center; and our popular Edible Books Festival on April 4 at the Park Central Library, when we vote on the best book-themed cake and then get to eat it. There’s a range of children’s programs including a nature walk for families at the Willard Branch Library and several activities at the Nature Center.
See the full Big Read schedule in the Bookends catalog or thelibrary.org/bigread, and make plans to join us.
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Clutter got you down? We can help solve it. A Saturday MARCH 29 program, “Conquer the Clutter,” will provide advice via Skype from minimalist blogger Joshua Becker at 2 p.m. and at 3:30 p.m. from Sharon Johnson, of Clutter Free, at the Brentwood Branch Library.

Kathleen O’Dell is community relations director for the Springfield-Greene County Library District. She can be reached at kathleeno@thelibrary.org.